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If I want to feel patriotic, I don’t need to run a St George’s flag up a flagpole. Give me a gig.

Give me Glastonbury, The Proms, the Cavern Club, the BRITS, the MOBOs, the Mercuries, the Ivor Novellos. Give me any of our wonderful grassroots music venues or independent festivals or record shops.

The thing that makes British music and our music scene so great is its diversity.

These were the opening words in my speech at this year’s Labour Party Conference and now, more than ever, we’re reminded that diversity isn’t a threat to be feared—it’s our greatest strength. At the MU, our equality, diversity and inclusion work is one of the things I’m most proud of as General Secretary.

Standing up to division

We know MU members are deeply concerned about the rise of far-right values in society, and as a trade union we can play our part in promoting an alternative.

Reform UK isn’t on the side of working people and their policies won’t make lives better for musicians, workers or the working class.

They want to dismantle the NHS and move to an insurance based healthcare system like in the US. They don’t support Labour’s Employment Rights Bill—which was forged by trade unions to increase rights and protections for workers. They don’t have any arts or music policy as far as we’re aware, and they plan to defund equality, diversity and inclusion work.

The far right thrives on division. It promotes exclusion based on identity, blaming migrants, minorities, or social progress for economic and cultural problems. Far-right values are fundamentally at odds with the values of the MU and the arts in general. The fact that right wing governments tend to defund the arts, or in the case of the Kennedy Centre in the US take control of them, isn’t a coincidence. The arts and music tend to promote liberalism, freedom of speech and amplify diverse voices.

Solidarity is our strength

The MU and the wider trade union movement are built on solidarity: the belief that workers are stronger together than apart. Whoever you are, wherever you work, and however you make music, the MU is behind every musician.

Our network for Musicians Who Experience Racism will help to inform our new strategy for tackling the far right. They have asked us to produce practical guidance and new MU resources for members wanting to promote equality and challenge far-right viewpoints and ideology.

When pay falls behind inflation, the economic climate is challenging and people are struggling, far-right ideology can gain traction. It offers oversimplified, misinformed answers to complex problems. Economic inequality, political disillusionment, and cultural change create fertile ground for narratives of betrayal, decline, and blame. For some, the far right’s message of pride and belonging feels empowering—even though it is built on division.

The MU proudly puts equality, diversity and inclusion at the core of everything we do. It is a thread running through our collective bargaining, campaigning and member services.

Music is strongest when it is open, diverse, and collaborative. Defending diversity is not separate from defending pay and conditions; it’s part of the same struggle.

Learning from our history

The MU has a proud history of standing against extremism and racism.

In the 1970s, as the National Front tried to gain ground, musicians helped launch Rock Against Racism, uniting punk and reggae artists against fascism. The MU were vocal supporters.

In the 1980s, the MU took a strong stance on apartheid in South Africa, calling on members to observe the cultural boycott.

In the 1990s, the Executive Committee voted for the MU to join 25 other unions as affiliates of the Anti-Racist Alliance. Around the same time, the Union called on members not to accept engagements with organisations promoting racist ideas, or performing at venues where racist views were likely to be expressed.

It has long been in the MU’s rule book that members agree not to discriminate against another member on the grounds of protected characteristics.

However, we acknowledge that we have not always got our messaging or approach right. The key difference today is that we are putting more resources into our equality, diversity and inclusion work and embedding it in our collective bargaining and campaigning.

We are attracting more diverse musicians into membership and ensuring we consult members from marginalised or underrepresented groups. This means we are better equipped than ever to speak authoritatively against political and social movements aimed to divide us.

Why does the MU oppose the far right?

Trade unions are built on solidarity. The far right is inherently anti-worker. The MU has always fought to protect our members’ livelihoods and rights. Beyond pay, contracts, and workplace safety, the MU plays a crucial role in defending culture itself. Far-right ideology undermines everything that the MU stands for.

The far right’s ideology of exclusion, censorship, and division undermines not just society but the very industries that musicians depend on. By resisting it, the MU protects both our members and the cultural freedoms that belong to us all.

Taking action: what the MU is doing in practice

• Working with government to deliver for musicians—improving jobs, wages and public services.

• Supporting members to respond where the far right is organising in workplaces and communities.

• Through collective bargaining, the MU negotiates contracts that embed anti-discrimination clauses and advocate for equitable terms for all musicians.

• The MU is a supporter of Love Music Hate Racism, a campaign that uses concerts and festivals to unite audiences against division.

• Partnering with anti-racist organisations such as Black Lives in Music and Stand Up To Racism, amplifying anti-racist voices in the music industry.

• Providing free-of-charge membership benefits for refugee musicians.mpaigning for better representation, equitable recruitment procedures, better protection for freelancers, and safe workplaces for LGBTQ+ and all marginalised workers.

For the MU, opposing the far right isn’t an add-on; it’s part of defending members’ rights. If far-right groups succeed in spreading hate, it threatens not only musicians’ freedom of expression but also their safety at gigs, their opportunities in the industry, and their right to work without discrimination.

How the far right threatens musicians

The far right often tries to co-opt culture to spread misinformation and hate. From white power punk in the 1980s to coded playlists online today, music has been a recruitment tool. This makes the music industry both vulnerable and powerful. Far-right groups know that cultural influence shapes politics and public opinion. Beyond the music industry, far-right ideology threatens the basic rights that the MU fights for:

• Censorship: Authoritarian politics means less freedom of expression—the lifeblood of the music industry.

• Exclusion: The music industry thrives on international collaboration. Far-right hostility to migration and diversity would cut off that exchange.

• Weakening unions: Far-right movements often attack collective organising, preferring workers without protection or a collective identity. What the far right wants would make musicians’ lives poorer, less safe, and less creative.

Culture is diversity

At the heart of the music industry is diversity. British culture has always been shaped by many voices: Caribbean sounds transforming music in the 1960s, South Asian influences enriching theatre and film, and LGBTQ+ communities reshaping performance and nightlife.

The far right, by contrast, promotes exclusion. It imagines a narrowly defined and racist national culture and sees diversity as a threat. For the MU, this is unacceptable. MU members come from every background, and the richness of the music industry depends on that mix. To accept the far right’s vision would be to erase what makes the British music industry dynamic.

The idea of travelling to share music—what we now consider touring—has in some shape or form always been part of musicians’ lives and practices. This is built on sharing and celebrating different musical cultures and allowing for easy movement of musicians around the world. In recent years, migration and visa policies have made it increasingly difficult for musicians to move around, whether to relocate or tour.

Together, we’re louder

The far right’s strategy is divide and rule. It blames migrants for low wages, minorities for social change, or progressive voices for ‘ruining tradition’. For the MU, that kind of division weakens everyone.

If musicians are excluded because of their background, because of their identity, or are silenced for challenging prejudice, then all musicians lose power.